ELECTRONIC VOICE ANNUNCIATING SYSTEM HAVING BINARY DATA CONVERTED INTO AUDIO REPRESENTATIONS

• US 3,641,496 A
• Filed: 06/23/1969
• Issued: 02/08/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/1969
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mcdonnell Douglas Corporation St Charles Missouri
• Original Assignee: Martin J. Slavin
• Inventors: Slavin, Martin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pitts, Harold I.
• Application Number:
  US04/835,525
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: 340/148,152,147I
• US Class Current: 704/274
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/02 Methods for producing synthetic speech; Speech synthesisers

Abstract

A voice annunciating system having an electronic memory for storing digital data representative of the analog audio signal of a plurality of predetermined sound components, selected series of said data being applied from said memory to a digital to analog converter adapted to produce an audio signal corresponding to the digital data applied thereto, by means of a control logic. The control logic is operative in response to an actuating signal associated with the desired message. Substantially all redundancy is eliminated from the digital data stored in the memory, said control logic being adapted to repetitively apply individual sound components or series of sound components to the digital to analog converter for reconstructing the desired message.

Claims

1. An electronic voice annunciating system comprising electronic memory means for storing the digital data code converted equivalent to the analog audio signal of a plurality of predetermined sound components;

digital to analog converter means operatively connected to said memory means for producing an audio signal consisting of said predetermined sound components converted from the digital data supplied thereto from said memory means; and

control logic means operatively connected to said memory means for applying selected series of said sound component digital data from said memory means to said digital to analog converter means, said selected series of sound components defining words in a desired message, said control logic being operative in response to an actuating signal applied thereto associated with said desired message, said control logic means including means for repetitively applying the digital data equivalent to preselected ones of said sound components from said memory means to said digital to analog converter means in producing the sounds defining said words, said repeated sound components representing redundancies in said sounds.

2. An electronic voice annunciating system as recited in claim 1, wherein said memory means has stored therein at least the digital data equivalent to the sound components necessary to define a plurality of messages, said system including priority decision logic means for receiving a plurality of actuating signals each associated with a different message and selecting the one of said messages having the highest priority for transmission.

3. An electronic voice annunciating system as recited in claim 2 wherein at least some of said actuating signals are responsive to the status of sensors, the messages associated therewith being descriptive of said status.

4. An electronic voice annunciating system as recited in claim 3, wherein at least some of said messages associated with sensor status also include instructions for responding to said status.

5. An electronic voice annunciating system as recited in claim 1, wherein said memory means comprises a nondestructive read-only memory.

6. An electronic voice annunciating system as recited in claim 5, wherein said read-only memory has stored therein at least the sound components necessary to produce any one of a plurality of desired messages.

7. An electronic voice annunciating system as recited in claim 1, wherein said memory means has stored therein at least the digital data equivalent to each sound of the desired message less substantially all such digital data equivalent to redundancies in sound components in each such sound, said control logic means being adapted to repetitively apply selected sound components from said memory means to said digital to analog converter means to reconstruct said redundancies in each such sound to form the desired message.

8. An electronic voice annunciator system as recited in claim 1, wherein said memory means has stored therein at least the digital data representative of a plurality of sounds, said sounds, in various combinations, defining a plurality of words, said words defining at least a plurality of desired messages, said control logic means being adapted to sequentially apply the digital data representative of selected sounds from said memory means to said digital to analog converter means to define the desired message.

9. An electronic voice annunciating system for use with an optical character reader as recited in claim 1, including monitor means connected to said control logic means for converting the output signal of said optical character reader to voice actuating signals, said memory means having stored therein at least the digital data equivalent to the sound components necessary to define a library of words, said control logic means sequentially applying digital data representative of words scanned by said optical character reader from said memory means to said digital to analog converter means in Response to said voice actuating signals to produce a voice message formed from said scanned words.

10. An electronic voice annunciating system as recited in claim 9, wherein said monitor means stores elements of said optical character reader output signal until said elements define a word stored in said memory means, at which time the appropriate voice actuating signal is produced.

11. An electronic voice communicating system for use with a teletype system as recited in claim 1, including monitor means connected to said control logic means converting teletype signals to voice actuating signals, said memory means having stored therein at least the digital data equivalent to the sound components necessary to define a library of words stored therein, said control logic means sequentially applying digital data representative of the words transmitted by said teletype signal from said memory means to said digital to analog converter means to produce a voice message corresponding to said transmitted words.